As being part of the game of golf, control and quality of the putt are of the utmost importance. The statistics in fact confirm that the quality of the game and its outcome depends for more than 70% on this last stroke, which being the shortest in terms of distance of ball travel, is the most difficult and requires great precision and accurate movement (called “swing”), smoothly in line with the target (the hole).
At present, there is nothing on the market, except equipment using video cameras or sophisticated and expensive apparatus, for conducting the study and representation of one's own “putt swing” (i.e. “putt stroke” or simply “putt”) visually reproducing the movement so as to visualize the defects and/or characteristics of a singular swing.
Both amateur and even more so professional players are therefore looking for a simple and inexpensive system that can substitute expensive instrumentation.
From the document U.S. Pat. No. 6,503,152 is known an apparatus which allows to be aware of certain characteristics of one's own putt, consisting of a rectangular, flat plate, being laid on the ground, oriented with the long sides in the direction of the hole; at a first and of said plane a recess is formed in order to receive in support the golf ball; a longitudinal groove runs parallel to the longer sides of the rectangular plane up at its opposite end, where, on both sides of the groove, between this latter and the major sides of the plane, are arranged a number of obstacles, usually consisting of golf balls arranged on a series of transverse grooves or notches. In the case of a non perfect stroke, the golf ball which has been enacted by the specific putter will collide with one or more obstacles, moving them; the player can therefore realize where and in what direction the ball was deflected.
This solution, though simple and relatively inexpensive, does not allow to detect the features of one's own “putt swing”, but only to reveal immediate results.
GB2096469A discloses a device for golf training which includes a club or “iron” which has a magnetic substance in the lower part, a detection device fixed in several points and positions on a base for emitting signals to detect the movement of the head of the golf iron and devices for detecting and displaying the time and the movement of the iron. This requires a plurality of magnets positioned under the base, within special compartments, which, by interacting with the head of the iron of a magnetic material, determine a signal variation of the density of the magnetic wave, which is then “processed” by an electronic circuit. GB2096469A requires an especially made iron head and complex electronic circuits in order to operate as well as a power supply. Moreover, the information that is obtained relates exclusively, even when said system may be applied to a “putter”, to that portion of the swing that is between groups of magnets spaced from each other by a predetermined distance which, in GB2096469A, is defined at the crossing point, i.e. of impact, with the golf ball, as can be seen from the position of the recesses housing the magnets and, therefore, cannot provide information relating to the whole section of the “back-swing”, of the “down swing” and also of the “follow-through”, which are essential to the putt stroke.
WO2005058425A2 discloses a device consisting of a mat with synthetic grass, which emulates the natural grass, which has the purpose of indicating to the golf player the impact point of the iron on the mat relative to the position of the golf ball. The mat is made of a material whose “blades of grass” bend on impact with the iron and remain bent leaving a visual sign (“trace”) of the portion where the iron hit the mat, since the “blades of grass” are colored differently from one side relative to the other or with different color tones. To cancel the “trace” left by the iron, the player must pass his foot in the opposite direction to that of the golf iron, so that the blades of synthetic grass will straighten (or almost) in the vertical position. It is clear that this embodiment does not allow to obtain information about the trajectory of the swing, but only in relation to the impact point of the “iron” with respect to the ball. Moreover, the layout is clearly subject to premature wear.
Also in WO2005058425A2 is however reported that a similar result may be obtained with a honeycomb structured magnetophoretic table, inside which there are a plurality of chambers wherein a liquid of different nature and composition containing magnetic particles is placed; the liquid must have sufficient viscosity to allow the magnetic particles to move, but also such as to limit the effect of the gravity force that would re-deposit the magnetic particles. Said embodiment of the device necessarily requires micrometer-sized magnetic particles, so that they are affected as little as possible by gravity; in addition, the putter head must be entirely magnetic and this creates a number of drawbacks: if the whole head of the putter is magnetic it would leave a “trace” as wide as the putter head, since the magnetic particles would be entirely attracted by the magnetic flux; therefore it would not be possible to identify and interpret the movement of the swing; with such a wide trace, then, it would be possible to make visible only the trace of the “down-swing” and of the “follow-through” because the trace left in the “back-swing” would be deleted from the “down-swing”; but, above all, the magnetic particles suspended in the viscous liquid are attracted only vertically without distinction according to the line that is performed by the putter, therefore not providing any useful information to the player. To cancel the “trace”, therefore, it is necessary to use a magnet of opposite polarity to that defined by the putter head.
WO03015878A1, finally, discloses a device with the purpose of indicating to the player the impact point of the iron relative to the position of the golf ball by means of the deformation which occurs in the impact point of the iron on a sheet of flexible material below which a viscous substance guarantees the permanence of the impression (deformation) generated by the impact of the iron. The application is therefore limited to training with irons or woods, and not with the putter and no information on the trajectory of the swing is given. To remove the impression, the device provides a “flattening mechanism” which, in one case, comprises magnetic particles contained in the viscous liquid and a unit that generates a magnetic field which, acting upon the magnetic particles, “moves” the viscous liquid and thus allows the flattening of the flexible mat.